‘The people of Snohomish County support us’

Everett NewsGuild members were met with strong labor and community support as they continue their fight against story quotas that threaten the quality of local journalism

EVERETT, WA (September 5, 2025) — Under a smokey sky almost as red as their shirts, members of the Everett NewsGuild held an informational picket in downtown Everett on Thursday evening, calling attention to their ongoing fight for a contract at the Daily Herald that ensures fair wages and protects the integrity of local journalism.

Joined by union siblings from AFSCME, OPEIU Local 8, and SPEEA/IFPTE Local 2001, as well as members of the Snohomish chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the picket was met with a steady stream of supportive motorists honking their horns. A driver of an old-school hot rod took it a step further, yelling from his vehicle as he passed, “if I had a horn, I would honk!”

“We’re a small bargaining unit, a small union,” said Will Geschke, a general assignment reporter at the Daily Herald. “But what’s cool about tonight is there’s so many people out here coming up to support and showing the company that the people of Everett, the people of Snohomish County support us. They don’t support big business, they don’t support people taking away local news. They want to see better local news, and they want to see the professionals that do the local news paid a fair wage and have fair working conditions.”

The community has stood with Herald newsroom staff throughout their contract fight. The Everett NewsGuild was formed in the fall of 2022, and in June of 2024, after the paper was purchased by Carpenter Media Group — which has snatched up dozens of local news outlets across the Northwest — 10 of the 18 union members were laid off. In a Herald article about the layoffs, Publisher Rudi Alcott said, “Moving forward, operations are not going to change much. The readers won’t notice.”

Readers definitely noticed, making their displeasure with this casual disregard for the valued work of local journalists quite clear. Since then, community members have supported the workers by sending emails to management urging good faith bargaining and pledging to cancel their subscriptions if the employer continues to stonewall on a fair contract.

Three years after forming, the Everett NewsGuild continues to bargain for a first contract. The union reports that the final issue to resolve is an employer scheme to tie workers’ wages to a story quota. Under the company’s current proposal, a reporter would have to write at least 10 stories every week to earn a $1 per hour raise (the employer’s current wage proposal sets base pay at $20.50 per hour, barely above Everett’s minimum wage). If reporters don’t churn out stories, they don’t get even that one dollar bump. This model would likely be devastating to the integrity of their local news coverage; tying wages to the quantity of stories forces journalists to chose between paying their rent and producing quality journalism.

According to the union, Washington has lost 20% of its newspapers since 2004, pulling from analysis by the League of Women Voters of Washington. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office reported in 2020 that Washington newsrooms lost 67% of their workers from 2005 to 2020, a higher share than the 59% loss nationally.

Additional reporting contributed by Mike Murphy, Digital Communications Specialist at the Washington State Labor Council.